The grey plains were always so deceptively peaceful. Grimm waited there, somewhere between the realms of life and death, for the attack that he knew was coming. He shape-shifted quickly from a hound to a man, and took up his armor and sword. Nox would be vulnerable while she fought to free Loki, her attention focused solely on the battle around her. The spirits of the Shadowkin would not be able to resist the chance to kill the woman who had destroyed so many of them. It would be up to Grimm to keep them from getting her.

He peered into the distance, but there was no sign of his foes. They were out there though, he knew it in his bones. It was just a matter of figuring out what form the attack would take. “You know that the only way to reach her is to go through me,” he called out, his deep voice echoing through the gloom. “So why don’t we get this over with?”

He paused to listen, and in the endless silence of limbo, light footsteps approached. There was only one of them coming, but that made him even more wary. He gripped his sword and shifted his stance, ready to unleash Hel.

When the attack came, he was in no way prepared for it. A voice he had not heard in over two thousand years drifted across the featureless plain, and his sword nearly fell from nerveless fingers.

“Captain Aurengrey of the Wind Knights. Hero of the House of Winds. Faithful servant of Lord Galen. I have called you thrice, will you answer the summons, my darling Grey?”

Grimm’s heart turned to ashes. He closed his eyes and lowered his sword. “Hello, Katya.”

When he opened them again, she was there in front of him, her auburn hair standing out like a beacon in the colorless void. Her eyes were still a vivid leaf green, and no lines marred her delicate features. There was a flash of silver at her throat, and he saw that the feather badge he had given her still hung from its chain around her neck. She was even dressed in the same clothes he had last seen her wearing.

Grimm could not move, and he knew it was only because somewhere, deep down, he wanted to see her again. That old, half-forgotten desire gave her power over him. He cursed himself for a fool, and tried to squash any old feelings he might have for the woman he had once planned to marry.

Almost as if reading his mind, she smiled. “Why so sad, my love? Was it not your greatest wish to see me one more time? Here I am,” she said, turning in a teasing pirouette. “Are you not pleased?”

“The last time I saw you, I ended up with four paws and a tail. I have developed a few trust issues since then.”

She let out a rippling laugh. “You always did have a wonderful sense of humor, Grey. It was one of the things I loved about you.”

“I am having trouble remembering why I ever loved you.”

She pouted and reached out to run a finger down his chest. As she did, his armor disappeared, to be replaced with the uniform he had worn the day he was captured. “Ouch, still harboring a grudge, Grey? That is so unlike you.”

He chose a point somewhere over her shoulder to look at, and stared out into the void. “My name is Grimmalkyn now, remember? You chose it for me yourself.”

“The grim of the Shadow Kindred! It seemed a fitting name for your new life. A life that is stlll within your reach, my love. Galen stopped us before we could complete the transformation, and left you stranded in this awful limbo. But I can make it all better.” She laced her arms around his neck, and molded herself to his body. She laughed has he closed his eyes again. “Your mind may deny it, but your body remembers me. Why fight it? Say the word, and you can have your body back in the mortal realms, just as it was. No more scars, no more chasing shadows. You can be young forever, and spend eternity with me.”

She gave him a slow, deep kiss. As their lips parted she looked into his eyes, but there was no joy in them.

“Haven’t I suffered enough?” he said.

Anger flickered across her face. “You are mine, Grey. Body and soul, you belong to me.”

“I’m afraid my soul is bound to another, and I do not think she is inclined to share.”

“The half-breed? You would cast me aside for that?” She stepped back, fury marring her pretty features. “You fool, do you think she will leave her fiery lover for you?”

Grimm laughed at her. “Soul-bound is not the same as soul-mates. Don’t get me wrong, I am very fond of Nox, but your barb falls far short of the mark. I’ll give you points for creativity though.”

“The day will come when she is gone, my Grey. You will outlive her, and everyone else you now call friend.” She turned and walked away, fading into the landscape. “When you tire of wandering the world alone, come and find me.”

Grimm watched her go, his heart breaking all over again. “What would be the point? The woman I loved never existed.”

The one hope he had clung to all these years was that his beloved had been forced to betray him to the Shadowkin against her will. It was only through Galen’s intervention that he himself had not become their pawn. For millennia he had dreamed of finding a way to save her, to break the hold they had over her. But the truth could not be hidden here, so close to Deaths domain. Her love had always been a lie.

The rest of the Shadowkin gathered on the edge of the plain, and he could hear their mocking laughter. They expected this to be the last blow, the one that finally broke his spirit and set them loose on the world.

A year ago it might have worked. But now, Nox was depending on him. She had trusted and believed in him when no one else would. She had given him real hope, and showed him that there was still more to life than what lay in the past. And there was no way in Hel he was going to let them have her.

Grimm readied his sword, and the dark smile on his face stopped his enemies in their tracks. “Well, what are you waiting for?” he said. “Let’s get this party started.”

Like this:

The Morning Lord was a cruel man, but a cunning one as well, which meant he always kept his hands clean of the dirty work. That was the one thing Loki had going in his favor – there was no chance that his uncle would come to inspect the prisoners and recognize him. Even if his lackeys figured out who it was that languished in their Lord’s prison, he would wait in his castle like an old, fat spider. He preferred to let his prey struggle till they wore themselves out. Only then would he come to administer the killing blow.

And that meant Loki and Anders had a little more time.

They did their best to rouse the other prisoners, cajoling them to lie in groups to conserve body heat. Loki sat with the youngest of the captured Fire nomads, using the last bits of energy he had stored in the dragon tattoo to keep them warm. They huddled against him, shivering, too tired to even cry.

Anders sat with his back to Loki’s. “The kids can’t take much more of this, Red.”

“I know,” Loki said, and tried to find a little more energy to radiate through the tattoo. “Grimm said Nox has a plan, though.”

“For what that’s worth. No offense, but you know as well as I do that it would take an army to crack open a fortress of this size.”

Loki chuckled. “Don’t underestimate her. My lady has a knack for breaking things.” He shifted, causing pins and needles to prickle in his limbs. “Here, sit with the kids for a bit. I’m going to stagger around and see if I can’t get some feeling in my legs.”

“Go for it. I gave up on mine hours ago.”

Loki had just started to make a tottering circuit around the edge of the cell, when he felt a vibration through the soles of his feet. It came again, and again, at regular intervals, getting stronger with each repetition.

“Did you feel that?” Anders said.

“Yes! Ten gold says those are warcastings going off!”

Muted flashes came from a roughly door-shaped area off to one side. Loki hurried over to inspect it. It looked like the rest of the walls, but became slightly transparent with each burst of light. There was still no sound, however, only the vibrations through the walls and floor.

An electric blue glow added itself to the display, and Loki started pounding on the doorway. “Nox! In here, luv!” The glow got closer, passed, and started to recede. “No. Dammit, she can’t hear us. Nox! Grimm!” He pounded on the wall again, and then shot the last dying ember of heat from the dragon tattoo under the edge of the door.

There was another tremor, and the glow moved closer again. Loki slumped against the door in relief. He could barely make out Nox’s face on the far side. She frowned at the door and ran her hands over it, obviously not able to see him. “C’mon, luv, figure it out. You’re a genius, you can do it.”

He could see her lips moving, and she sketched a symbol in the air. The door rang like a bell, a pure chiming sound that made it waver and turn clear.

Nox jerked back as if startled, dismay on her face. She put her palm against the doorway and he could see her say his name.

If he looked as bad as he felt, he couldn’t blame her for jumping when he appeared. He pressed his hand to the barrier, over the spot where hers lay. “Hello, blue eyes,” he said, exaggerating so she could read his lips.

The floor rattled, and dust started trickling down from the ceiling. Nox looked sharply over her shoulder and spoke to someone behind her. When she turned back, she had that speculative look that always worried Grimm – lips pursed, a finger tapping against them, and a calculating gleam in her eye. Loki thought the chaos that usually followed that look was one of her more endearing traits, but then, he was Fire.

She pointed to his arm, drew three symbols with her aura, and mimed popping a balloon with a pin. She wanted him to use the tattoo to punch a hole in the barrier.

It was a good plan, except that he had no energy left to power it. His heart sank and he shook his head. The floor rattled, and he could see Nox talking urgently to one of the ghosts of the Wind knights. They must have been the ones doing the warcastings. From the look on her face, the fight wasn’t going well.

Loki racked his brain, trying to remember everything his father told him about the dragon mark. For a moment, he thought he could hear his father’s voice again, patiently explaining how Fire worked.

::It comes from the heart, son. It starts there, and ends there, more so than any other element::

With the words came a solution. Not a good one, but he did have a bit of energy he could draw on. It was going to hurt like Hel though…

The tattoo rose to the surface of his skin, symbols spinning in time with his thoughts. His heart thudded painfully as he drew the heat from his body’s core. It felt like steel bands wrapped around his chest, making it hard to breathe, and sharp pains shot down his arm. His heart labored and slowed, his vision narrowing down to a dark tunnel.

The symbols spun back and a needle of scarlet flame drilled into the barrier.

Nothing.

Something.

The barrier exploded inwards as the elements rushed in to fill the void in the cell. Loki heard Nox say, “oh, crud,” and the backdraft from a room full of Fire kin igniting blew out at them. He threw arms out, the symbols of the tattoo spinning again as his own body burst into flame. He blocked as much of the doorway as he could, absorbing the excess heat until his skin glowed like molten glass. His heart gave a sluggish thud, skipped a beat, and settled into a more normal rhythm as the energy poured in.

The torrent died off as everyone regained control over their elements. Loki looked for Nox, and found her being hidden behind two of the ghost knights. “Are you all right?” he asked, worried.

“Yeah, I’ve had worse blow-backs in my workshop.” She coughed and wiped soot from her face. “Although I’ll need to look up a cantrip for growing back singed eyebrows,” she said, with a rueful grin. “All right, let’s get you all out of here. We hijacked the portal in the courtyard, so up we go.”

She stopped, and slapped at her pockets. “Wait, I know it’s here somewhere…got it!” She brandished a small silver ring. “Going to need this to open the portal again. Evan, call in the skirmishers and clear us a path to the main courtyard. Loki, organize the prisoners, kids in the middle, and you boys,” she said, pointing to some teenagers, “help those fellows in the corner. They don’t look like they know which way is up yet.”

The prisoners stumbled out into the hallway, bumping and tripping over each other in their hurry to escape. One look at them told Loki they were in no shape to run. “All right, stay close, everyone,” he said. “Slow and steady’s the word.”

Up and up they spiraled, through corridors lit with flickering globes like miniature suns. The noise of battle grew louder, running feet and the clash of arms, punctuated by the boom of warcastings. The ghost knights had done their job well, leaving most of the hallways empty. But as they reached the last set of stairs leading up to the courtyard, their luck ran out. Spirit wards crackled into life along the stairwell and Nox cried out as the ghosts disappeared. “Evan! Tyrus!”

An entire company of red robed cultists waited at the top of the stairs, their glowing swords drawn. The prisoners froze in terror, only a few of them making any attempt to form a weapon from the elements.

Loki looked over Nox’s head at Anders. “A hundred of them, three of us.”

Anders shrugged. “Should we ask them to surrender now?”

The sound of clapping came from beyond the troops, and the golden haired Sun priest who had tried to forcibly ‘convert’ Loki made his way between them. “Youthful bravado is always so entertaining. Pointless, of course.” The priest gave Nox a chilling smile. “You must be Lucien’s half-blood abomination. Which means the young duelist is the pretender to the throne. The fake dragon mark is a nice touch, but I think we have seen enough of your sorcerous tricks, little girl.” He cupped his hands around a golden light. It oozed out between his fingers and crept along the floor, sending out tendrils to drag itself closer to the prisoners. “The Sun conquers all,” he intoned. “Surrender to it, and be remade!”

Loki pushed Nox behind him. “Don’t let it touch you!”

::Do not fear the light::

Loki glanced quickly around to see who had spoken. The voice was heart-breakingly familiar, and with each word the dragon tattoo pulsed on his arm. Loki felt the blood drain from his face. “Dad?”

::The light is a lie, son. They use fear to keep you from seeing the truth::

Loki knew his father was dead, along with everyone else he had known. But there was no denying it was his voice. Time seemed to slow as he spoke, and everyone was frozen in place around him.

::The sun is nothing more than a ball of fire. The dragon can eat its light like candy::

A million questions flooded Loki’s mind, all the things he had ever wanted to ask his father. But there was only one that mattered now. “Show me how?”

His hand raised itself of its own volition, and time sped up to its normal pace. The eerie golden light leapt up to strike, and the dragon roared off his arm to meet it. The light entered its gaping jaws and pulled up short, coiling around until it formed a ball, like a golden pearl. The dragon filled the stairwell, forcing the soldiers to retreat from its volcanic heat. It towered over them, the light pearl held in its teeth. It looked straight at the horrified priest, and bit down. The pearl exploded, sending golden fire rippling down its scales, turning to scarlet as reached its tail.

The dragon slowly faded, leaving a crimson figure of a man in its wake.

The specter reached out, and the glow around the soldier’s swords went out. Then the swords themselves began to melt.

::Death is the fate that awaits traitors to their House, and murderers of blood kin. You tell my brother I said that::

The priest and his followers took one look on the advancing specter, and fled.

Loki ran up to try and see his father’s shade more clearly, but it faded away. Anders pounded him gleefully on the back. “Damn, man! That was one Hel of a pyrotechnics show! I didn’t know you had it in you!”

“I didn’t,” Loki said, but Anders had already turned to help Nox gather the prisoners and get them moving again.

Nox spun the bands on her silver ring, and the portal opened onto the familiar moonlit ruins of a guard tower on the outskirts of the Wind territories. The ghost knights were waiting for them on the other side, guiding the escaped prisoners through.

Loki was the last one to cross over, and he hesitated on the threshold of the portal. He raised his hand in a salute. “Thanks Dad. I owe you one.” The portal snapped shut behind him, and Nox spun the ring again to scramble it to keep anyone from following them.

Loki didn’t need to hear his father’s advice to know what to do next. When you win the fight, kiss the girl. And he did.

Like this:

The world was empty and cold. No Fire, no Earth; the elements that had sung in Loki’s veins from the moment he was born were gone. His whole body was wracked with convulsions, and he lay on the hard, cold floor of his prison cell, helpless. He was alive, but he only knew it because of the bone-deep ache that a dead man could not have felt.

The quiet, broken sounds of misery were all around him. He pried his eyes open to look around, but even his ability to see heat signatures was gone. All he could make out were vague shapes, lying in huddled, shivering heaps to either side of him. There was no sign of the New Dawn soldiers that had captured him.

Loki knew survival was as much a state of mind as a matter of physical strength – if he let despair settle in, he was done for. He forced himself to sit upright, pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them to conserve what little heat he could. Then he set about thinking of something to distract him from his predicament while he gathered his strength.

The only thing he could come up with was a silly, raunchy bar song about a miller’s son chasing a dairy maid around her cows. His teeth were chattering, but he belted it out anyway. “Oh, I reached for her udder, but caught me a rudder, and the bull did bellow and blow! Hey ho! The hooves did fly, and so did I, for the bull rang my ding-dong-derry …”

“hey ho,” came a weak voice from across the room.

Loki sat up a little straighter. “That you, Andy?”

Anders let out a tired laugh. “Only you would sing about some poor bastard getting neutered, right after getting your powers stripped.”

A grin split Loki’s face. “Seemed appropriate.”

“What was the next line?”

“The sun may rise, and the cock may crow, but never no more shall I,” Loki sang.

“Hey ho!”

The sound of iron-shod boots rang through the darkness, and Loki shielded his eyes from a searing light that filled the room.

“Well, we may have one that is strong enough to be worthy candidate. What is your name, my son?”

Loki squinted from behind his fingers, and caught a blurry view of robes that were dyed in all the colors of sunrise. One of the higher ranking members of the New Dawn cult was standing over him.

“My name’s Lance,” Loki said, sticking to his cover story.

“Lance. Somehow I doubt that. But no matter, when you are reborn into the Light, you will receive your true name.”

Loki glared up at his jailor. “I like my name, old man. It’s unambiguous.”

“You are a fighter, I see. Such a shame for a man of your talents to die so young.” The older man sat down on a chair provided to him by silent, red-robed guards who stood around him, giving Loki a clear look at him. His hair and beard were golden, and hung long over his robes. A golden band was wrapped around his head, and a gem was set in its center, emitting the light that filled the cell.

He leaned forward a little, as if sharing a confidence with Loki. “You are dying, you know. Without the elements, your body’s systems will shut down one by one. It is a terrible way to go.”

Loki gave him a wary look. “What do you want from me?”

That earned him a thin-lipped smile. “Straight to the point. Perhaps Lance is apropos. I want to give you a gift, my young warrior.” He reached out to grasp Loki’s arm, and the glow from the gemstone flowed down to his hand.

Loki jerked away, adrenaline giving him enough energy to scramble away from the creeping, liquid Light. He pushed back against the wall, flat hatred in his eyes. “If that was an offer to join your little organization, I’ll pass. I have a problem with cutting down innocent women and children.”

“Those filthy nomads?” the man tutted. “The few we took may prove useful. The rest have been cleansed from the earth.” He shrugged, and stood up. “You are a strong one. And smart. I’ll come back tomorrow, and see what is left of you. Maybe by then, you will be ready accept that you belong in the Light.”

“I’ll see you in Hel first!”

He gave Loki a paternal smile. “You still believe in that quaint old myth? The Long Road to Hel? And you called my soldiers ignorant. The Sun is the only end to all roads.” He turned away and the light went out, dropping the room into thick darkness again.

Loki thought of Grimm, and let out a mirthless laugh. “Are you ever in for a shock, old man.” He pushed himself off from the wall, and crawled to where he had last heard Anders. “Still with me, Andy?”

“Nice man, that,” Anders croaked. He sounded as bad as Loki felt.

“Yeah, he was a real peach.”

“Think anyone’s looking for us?”

“I’m sure they are,” Loki lied. He thought of Nox, and wished he had never sent that last note telling her his trip would run later than planned. How long would she wait to send Grimm looking for him? He knew it wouldn’t work, but he tried to summon the old ghost anyway. What did he have to lose? “Grimmalkyn. Grimmalkyn. Grimmalkyn!”

Loki nearly jumped out of his skin when Grimm’s rumbling telepathic voice echoed in reply.

“Fireborn?”

Hope flooded through Loki. “Grimm! You found us!”

The hound’s voice faded in and out, as if coming over a long distance. “Not yet…Nox needs… more… landmarks?”

Loki tried to think of the glimpse he got outside the fortress where he had been captured. Triple peaks of a snow-clad mountain, and the walls of a large castle. A courtyard, done in the same sun motif as the smaller fortress in the valley. The sun itself rising in the east, between the first and second peak.

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Loki lay hidden in the tall grass, the morning dew soaking the front of his shirt and pants. He and Anders had ridden through the night to try and catch the New Dawn press gang, but to no avail. Their quarry was swallowed up by the gates of an imposing fortress in the valley below them, just as the first fingers of dawn brushed the treetops.

Anders cursed quietly beneath his breath. “Look at that place. Twenty foot high walls, all polished limestone. Even if we could scale them we’d stand out like a sore thumb against all that white. One main entrance, heavily guarded, and men on the ramparts. A lookout tower in the middle, with views of the entire grounds.” He shook his head. “We’d need an army to break in there, and another to fight our way back out again. I’m all for a fight Red, but that’s suicide.”

Loki’s face was stony. “I’m not leaving those kids in their hands.”

The Storm kindred sighed. “I was afraid you’d say that.” He rubbed gingerly at the lumpy bruise on his forehead. “Though I guess I should be grateful you’re so stubborn about leaving anyone behind.”

“That’s right, you owe me one,” Loki said, with a wolfish grin.

“Fine, fine” Anders grumbled. “Let’s circle around and see what our options are.”

They moved back off the ridge, staying low until they got in amongst the trees. Pines had given way to oaks and maples, which gave them less cover than they would have liked, but the only alternative was the open hillside. They slipped from tree trunk to tree trunk, keeping a constant watch on the fort for any sign that they had been spotted. The hill sloped downwards into the valley as they got to the back side of the fort, and the trees began to thin out.

Anders crouched behind a knobby old oak. “We may have to go back around the other way,” he said.

Loki made a quelling motion with his hand, and Ander’s mouth snapped shut. A light flashed up in the tower, and an answering flash came from the hillside they had just vacated. The sound of hoofbeats shook the ground, and an entire patrol of New Dawn soldiers galloped out of the trees.

“Where the Hel did they come come from?”

Loki shrugged. “Portal, maybe?”

“There they are!” came the shout, and the two friends scrambled to their feet. There was no point in trying to out-run cavalry on foot – they called fire and lightning to their hands, and got ready to fight.

“What’s the plan, Red?” Anders said.

“Pop rocks,” Loki said, drawing on Fire and Earth to send a wave of heat through the ground.

The Storm kin let out a whoop of laughter. “That’ll be a good start.” He reached out and pulled the moisture from the dew into the air, forming a small, but intense storm cloud. A flick of his hand sent it scudding towards the oncoming cavalry.

New Dawn cultists were at their strongest in the morning sun, and they hit the cloud with a beam of light, thinking to burn it off.

Anders sniffed. “Predictable.”

The storm broke under the heat, dumping a quick drenching rain over the cultists. As the cool water hit the ground, it caused every super-heated pebble to shatter with a crackling BANG. The front ranks of horses panicked, tossing their riders and galloping wildly off into the trees.

Loki added more heat into the air, giving Anders everything he needed to summon heat lighting. Thunder boomed, and lightning slammed down amidst the remaining attackers. The cultists wheeled around them, sawing at the reins to get their mounts under control.

In the distance, alarm bells were ringing at the fortress. Loki grinned as he saw more troops pouring out of the gates. “Yes! Come out, come out said the spider…” He set the grass to smoldering, sending up billows of smoke to fill the whole valley.

“They know we’re here, Red.”

“But they can’t see us, and they’re out of the fortress now. C’mon!”

“They’re not all out,” Anders muttered, but followed close on the Fire kin’s heels. He wet a sleeve and held it over his mouth to keep from coughing on the smoke.

They waited in the shadow of the gates until the last of the troops marched past, and slipped inside. Two guards stood by the winch for the portcullis, complaining about the smoke and rubbing blearily at their eyes. Anders rushed at them with a menacing, shark-like grin that actually made them stumble back a step, straight into LokI’s clutches. He took them down and motioned Anders to scout ahead while he hid the bodies inside the guard house.

He caught up to the Storm kin a minute later. The insterior of the fort was arranged around a courtyard. There were no windows anywhere, only doorways blocked off by heavy iron gates. The watchtower rose up high above it all, with a single entry at ground level with a stair beyond, also barred. The floor of the courtyard was covered in a stone mosaic of a sun-in-glory, the rays bounded by a ring of stones a few feet in from the walls, and the center made of a single copper disc. Other than that, there was no ornamentation at all, only smooth limestone walls.

“Where the Hel do they keep all those horses?” Anders whispered.

Loki shrugged. “We need to find a way inside.” He waited for more of the smoke to roll in, and crept out into the courtyard. Something about that sun symbol was nagging at him though, and he hesitated at its edge. Then it hit him – it was just like the copper portal coins the cultists had used to try and kidnap Nox months ago. From the size of this one, it could open a portal big enough to send out an entire troop like the one that had just marched outside.

“Anders, wait!” Loki yelled, and launched himself at his friend to try and knock him out of the ring. Anders stopped and turned, but his foot had already hit the disc. The floor disappeared, revealing a ramp into another, larger courtyard. Anders tumbled down it, and Loki, already airborne, landed badly in a heap next to him. They were surrounded in a heartbeat by red-robed New Dawn soldiers, their arms and legs pinned down and rags that smelled of chloroform pressed over their mouths. Loki caught a glimpse of tall castle walls as he struggled, and mountains in the distance. He had time for one last thought as the darkness closed in – how were they going to rescue those kids the cultists nabbed, if they needed a rescue themselves?